Customer Reviews

Secret Song (Bonus Dvd)

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I heard DJ Spooky interviewed on XMPR by Bob Edwards and was fascinated with what he was discussing. I bought this CD/DVD on a lark. Boy, was I convinced that I was missing something! Typically, I listen to alternative rock, jazz and 20th century classical. In fact, I am more likely top listen to Webern than hip-hop and electronica. Now, I am a fan and listening to more and more. Thank you for opening up my world.

After listening to DJ Spooky's album The Secret Song, I came away feeling pleased from listening to a new sound. This album is an eclectic mixture of sounds from across the globe. It is a fresh new album that brings together so many different kinds of music from hip hop, to rap, to jazz, to classical, to dub, to rock, to international, to ambient sounds, to natural sounds. All of these come together through the album to create a free spirited chill soundtrack. Something that one could dance to, rave to, listen to with friends, or rock out to. Perfect for any mood, it is uplifting, jubilant, enriching and inspiring. DJ Spooky is definitely experimental throughout the album, but that is what draws me to listen to more. No one track is like the other, they are all unique sounds with something new to listen for in each track. From his song entitled "Heliocentric", which has a jazzy sound to it, to "5 Million Ways to Kill a CEO", which contains hip-hop and rap textures, every track is surprising and notable. Sampling is about collage, about mixing sounds and bringing new textures together. It is an art that DJ Spooky has mastered by playing with juxtaposition if radically different materials.

Something that I really liked about this album was the idea of globalization that ran through it. He took sounds and voices from all over the world and brought them together to create this album. He is connecting the dots between different cultures through not just song and "music" sound, but through TV commercials, dub, and more "out of the box" sounds, not typical of everyday song. It makes one question, what is "normal" music; it is divergent thinking that makes one feel open to new kinds of sound and music. On iTunes this tack is labeled as "electronic", but a new theme that has arisen in music is the idea of "tecnosonic music", one that is created through use of computer digital music that creates sound art. DJ Spooky's music could be labeled as "technosonic" through his use of computer technology and the creative election of music that he brings together to form his album.

My favorite track is "Dazed and Confused", which starts off with a cello sound that leads to a rock piece that sounds like an electric guitar. The song evolves to a mixture of electric guitar, drums, and more cello. The song gradually gets more and more intense as it progresses to a jumble of classical and rock sounds. It finally ends with a climax leading to an electric guitar solo finish. Another one of my favorite tracks is "Pax Per Fidem", which he composed with the Post Modern Jazz Quartet. This is a jazzy song with elements of technosonic music, such as a melodic xylophone sound, which I believe is created through computer music.

This is an album that will satisfy any listener. It reaches out to everyone and anyone who is willing to listen. I feel that even the close-minded will enjoy this eclection of sounds that brings light to all corners of the globe.

The Secret Song" by DJ Spooky, contains many different elemental musical styles. The two songs that really stood out to me on this album were, "Known Unknowns," and "Azadi (The New Complexity)." The tracks that I selected contain an ambient texture that contains a bass that gives the texture of Dub, in some of the tracks there is the modern genre of hip hop. DJ Spooky's uses the looping of melodies throughout the entire track which is yet another characteristic dub effect. The tracks selected can also be traced to early dub classical styles influences such as "Mad Professor" and ambient composer's influences such as "Aphex Twin."

The album "The Secret Song," published in 2009, is a creative album that pushes the envelope of genres and mixes various genres together. A good example of this can be seen in "Known Unknowns," in which classical dub synthesis can be heard in the background. However, as the dub synthesis is replayed continuously there is also a dissonant piano rhythm that is replayed within the song. The use of dub came from DJ Spooky himself and Mad Professor, who originally set the tone for redubbing effects in the 1980's. The other dub effect is the drum kit used throughout the track which creates the texture of a dub track, but this track also incorporates ambient sounds as well. These ambient sounds and the dissonant piano loop set the tone of the track to have a dissonant quality or unresolved tone.

There is also an ambient texture to the music as well which can be classified as isolationist ambient music. This isolationist ambient tone comes early in the track and used as a bridge to connect various parts of the track together. Some of these influences can be seen in artists such as Aphex Twin on his album, "I care because you do." This track creates many of these dissonant ambient sounds that can be seen mimicked in DJ Spooky's track, "Known Unknowns." "Known Unknowns" also incorporates industrial ambient sounds in order to set a dissonant tone to the music as well, and are included in the beginning and ending of the track. Influences within early electronic music history in regards to industrial ambient music can be seen since the early 1980's in music by artists such as Coil featured on "Ether."

The dissonant quality of the ambient music introduced in the hip hop verses is included on the track. These verses spoke on topics such as history and politics that are filled with a lot of tension and spew out topics that are very varied and goes through events that have occurred in recent history (starting late 1940's.) Essentially, this track contains many unique qualities by including hip hop verses and early modern concepts such as ambient music and re-dubbing effects.

Also, Stockhausen work can be seen in "Known Unknowns" for its use of ambient tones as well. "Known Unknowns" uses voice resonances with pitch and creating sounds of phonemes electronically, which is the same approach that Stockhausen uses in "GesangDerJunglinge." Also "Known Unkowns" captures Stockhausen's use of serializing the pitch, duration, dynamics, and timbre of every electronic and vocal event. The ambient sounds used in "Known Unknowns" by Stockhausen are implemented from "Metastasis" by Iannis Xenakis which uses sounds that incorporate probability theory, stochastic processes, statistics, statistical mechanics, group theory, game theory, set theory, and other branches of mathematics and physics in his compositions. During the first minute and a half the ambient sound directly mimics the sounds heard in the beginning of "Metastasis" by Iannis Xenakis. The track "Known Unknowns" also shows how the use of dub, hip hop, and ambient music can be incorporated into mathematical concepts in the realm of music.

A track that really combines two different musical elements would be "Azadi (The New Complexity)" which combines Iranian voices with a dubbed bass. "Azadi" has a drum kit that is added to the track which is also a distinct characteristic of dubbed music. This really shows how a blend of different cultural music combined into a track that is melodic and provides a steady harmony. This track also speaks of the political oppression that is occurring throughout Iran and also indicates the thoroughness of desire to restructure the Iranian government into a democracy.

Some of the lyrics translated are, "I can sing better than any nightingale but because of this city's freaks I seal my lips while my heart weeps." This quote reflects the event that erupted political turmoil after the elections were held and Sussan attempts to portray the emotions of the situation. Iranian music has a long history of development and evolution that depicts the political, social, moral, and geographical features of the country. A better explanation can be given, "The subtlety and profundity of Iranian music leads man to reflection and deep thought and takes him to a celestial world." It is not straightforward what type of genre history the singing is from. Through researching the historical background of the singing, it retains a 13th century singing mode, and is spoken in Farsi. Therefore, through my own judgment from thorough research it has a pre-Islamic quality (either the music of Iranian tribes such as Bakhtyari, Kordi, Lori, etc.)

From listening and analyzing the musical qualities of the music, I ascertained that there are many unique qualities to this album. By analyzing a few of the tracks from "Secret Songs" I discovered that there is a blending of different musical concepts stemming from different cultural backgrounds. Overall, the album retains its dub synthesized quality and it blended different acoustical concepts from the tracks, which included the genres of ambient music and early Iranian music. DJ Spooky's album, "The Secret Song" is a spectacular compilation of dub music that is mixed with various messages compiled from different cultures that include political, economic, and pop culture's evolution.